What are transformative agreements?
Transformative agreements are those contracts negotiated between institutions (libraries, national and regional consortia) and publishers that transform the business model underlying scholarly journal publishing, moving from one based on toll access (subscription) to one in which publishers are remunerated a fair price for their open access publishing services.
The transformative mechanism of these agreements is grounded in the evidence-based understanding that, globally, the amount of money currently paid in journal subscriptions, which amounts to an average cost of Euro 3800 per article, is amply sufficient to sustain open access publishing of the global scholarly article output.
They aim to deliver universal open access to readers and authors while containing the escalating costs associated with for-profit journals. In the context of the current scholarly publishing landscape, and in line with the objectives of the Open Access 2020 Initiative, they are an important strategy that preserves the academic freedom of authors, while accelerating the transition to open access.